Janibek Alimkhanuly on Demetrius Andrade Showdown: ‘This will be the easiest battle of my career’

By: Hans Themistode

Quietly but surely, Janibek Alimkhanuly has moved up to middleweight. The 28-year-old Kazakh tennis player was crowned the 2021 champion with a one-way victory over middleweight champion Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam.

Although N’Jikam has been both enduring and respected throughout his career, the 37-year-old was dropped from the tournament against Alimkhanuly. After hitting the deck in the third round of their competition at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, Alimkhanuly took the time of the contest to punish his men, which resulted in the eighth round stopping. .

Immediately after the win, Alimkhanuly was elevated by the WBO as a mandatory opponent to current belt holder Demetrius Andrade. The 33-year-old batting champion won his world title for the first time in 2018. Since then, Andrade has gone through his competitions, successfully defending his crown five times, three of them. that came before the final bell.

Most recently, Andrade quickly knocked out competitor Jason Quigley, roughly stopping him in the second at the SNHU Arena in Manchester. Despite how impressive Andrade has looked throughout his career, Alimkhanuly is confident that the confrontation between them will be unbelievably one-sided.

“Everybody knows that I will take down Andrade,” Alimkhanuly said on his social media account. “This will be the easiest match of my career.”

Although the high-ranked candidate is extremely confident in Andrade’s ability to strip the WBO belt, the longtime belt holder still has his eye on confrontations with the older names. For years now, Andrade has been urging current WBC middleweight champion Jermall Charlo and undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez to step into the ring against him.

But, despite the nagging calls, Andrade has yet to hit the kind of career-defining fight he aspires to. If Andrade abandons his plan and chooses to face Alimkhanuly, not only will his authorized title challenger believe he will win convincingly but according to Alimkhanuly promoter Bob Arum, the star Kazakhstan will prove that his name should be the only one mentioned when discussing the best middleweights in the sport.

“Kazakh-born fighter Janibek Alimkhanuly, who will fight for the WBO middleweight belt early next year, will make his mark in 2022,” Arum said. The best 160 pounds in the world.”